Eric M. Cathcart has been a member of the faculty since 1996 and has taught undergraduate courses in natural disasters, environmental geology, and other disciplines. Cathcart is a licensed California Professional Geologist (PG#7548), California Registered Environmental Assessor and works as an environmental consultant. His consulting work focuses on construction and remediation quality assurance, Phase I and Phase II site assessments, underground storage tank removals, Brownfield and Superfund assessments, and soil and groundwater investigations and remediation.

Scholarly Work

Cathcart has published multiple reports and articles for government regulatory agencies and professional journals. The majority of the work has focused on isotope geochemistry, carbonate diagenesis, micropaleontology, vertebrate paleontology, sedimentology, hydrogeology, metals contamination, environmental risk assessments, and environmental remediation of hydrocarbons and chlorinated solvents.

Currently, Cathcart is researching the geogenic concentrations of metals in all of the formations throughout San Diego County. This results of this research will be utilized by local environmental professionals, researchers, and regulatory agencies to establish background and health risk based thresholds for the remediation of contaminated properties.

Areas of Interest

Cathcart has taught a variety of courses at USD including Natural Disasters, Environmental Studies, Environmental Geology, and other undergraduate classes.